Mendocino County’s licensed cannabis growers voiced their frustrations at the county’s Economic Development meeting in Willits on March 27, highlighting the challenges of operating within a heavily regulated industry. Representatives from the Mendocino County Producers Guild, the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, and other stakeholders discussed the obstacles they face, including overregulation, zoning restrictions, and the inability to sell directly to consumers. As small farmers struggle to compete against larger operations and the unlicensed market, they urged the county to take action to support the local cannabis industry.
Cannabis license holders are regulated by numerous state and county agencies: the Department of Cannabis Control, Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Water Resources Control Board, California Department of Public Health, Cannabis Track and Trace System, County Departments of Cannabis and Building and Planning, and others. The growers must track and report their use of water, pesticides, and air quality to various agencies. Meeting participants say these agencies do not communicate with each other. One person remarked, “It’s not the farmers’ responsibility to educate the agencies.”
The County’s ordinance should mirror the State’s regulations, but in some instances, such as for a cannabis micro business license, they do not. Cannabis is taxed by the state and county at higher rates than for other businesses.
While license holders are under a microscope by regulatory agencies, unlicensed cannabis sold on the black market is readily available. Unlicensed cannabis is not regulated and brings down the price of licensed cannabis. Licensees are only allowed to sell within California, while unlicensed growers sell illegally across state lines, tax-free. Licensed cannabis is stringently tested, while unlicensed cannabis can contain pesticides and mold.
The average price for licensed cannabis dropped from $1,377 per pound in 2020 to only $721 per pound in 2024, according to the January 2025 California Cannabis Market Outlook Report, commissioned by the California Department of Cannabis Control.
Mendo’s cannabis farmers are frustrated over community resentment and misperception. “We are billed as criminals,” said one attendee. The attempt to use zoning laws to prohibit cannabis grows in Redwood Valley two years ago left both the growers and those wanting to exclude cannabis from their neighborhood feeling blindsided. The growers spent a lot of money and effort to obtain a license. Meanwhile, a group of residents opposed to cannabis was meeting with and urging county planners to create a cannabis prohibition zone. Neither side realized what the other was doing. Advance notice by the county to all parties would have prevented frustration on both sides, by providing a chance to communicate with each other prior to a license being granted.
Attorney E. D. Lerman would like the County to assist the applicants who have obtained the County Cannabis Cultivation Business License, but are in a holding pattern awaiting State Department of Cannabis Control approval. Lerman urged the County to work with the State to fast-track these applications that have been in limbo, in some cases for two years. Applicants cannot cultivate cannabis until they are approved by the DCC. The County Cannabis Department issues monthly reports showing new applications, applications approved by the county, and those approved annually or provisionally by the state. As of the latest report there are 118 applicants approved by the county still awaiting state license.
The farmers expressed frustration over the County Cannabis Ordinance limit on cultivation to 10,000 square feet, when other counties have a larger size limit. Mendocino County’s small craft farms have a hard time competing against larger brands from other counties.
Unlike winery owners, cannabis farmers cannot sell directly to consumers. They are legally required to go through a distributor, a middleman that adds an extra layer of cost. Numerous voices at the meeting called for the County to allow farm tours with retail sales at the farm and at farmers’ markets.
The small craft farmers are dedicated to the concept of sustainable, regenerative agriculture. Sun-grown and carefully nurtured. They say true cannabis aficionados prefer sun-grown cannabis over that grown in indoor warehouses. Many of the farmers grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers in addition to cannabis.
The talk turned to solutions and opportunities for economic growth.
Fewer or streamlined regulations, fees, and taxes were number one on the growers’ wish list of solutions for economic development. There were calls for enforcement against unlicensed cannabis growers. The amount of regulation, recordkeeping, and fees required in the legal cannabis business seems to leave them with little sympathy for their former outlaw brethren.
Mendocino County’s unique microclimate produces world-class wines and world-famous craft cannabis. The small farm craft cultivators find it ironic that their decades of experience (some of them are third-generation farmers), growing world-famous Emerald Triangle Cannabis, are not getting recognition from the County. An attendee remarked that at the start of the regulation process 8 years ago, the County promised to help with branding and marketing. Growers asked that the County include promotion of sun-grown craft cannabis and cannabis tourism along with wine in the Visit Mendocino program.
Jake Lawrence, who goes by Big Jake, is the founder of MedVets.org, a community development non-profit that focuses on veteran wellness and youth empowerment programs. MedVets provides cannabis oil used by cancer patients at St. Jude’s Hospital, and Duke and Stanford University Hospitals. After the meeting, Jake remarked “Mendocino County has a unique opportunity to bring substantial economic opportunity to their community as a whole.” Those in the industry expect cannabis to go legal at the federal level, and the County can allow their community to prosper. When farmers are at work, many other local supporting businesses see direct positive impact. . . . I’m not speaking to cannabis alone, I’m speaking to agriculture as a whole.”
The Economic Development Department plans to incorporate the suggestions gathered at the meeting into a report that should be ready by May. Suggested solutions for economic development may possibly be implemented over the next 12 to 24 months. The financially strapped cannabis licensees say they cannot wait that long to get help for their businesses.
The County’s Economic Development department is holding a series of meetings on different industry sectors. Here are the dates and topics of the next meetings:
- May 21 – Home Hardening & Construction
- July 17 – Agriculture
Dates to be announced for meetings on Forest Health and Sustainability and Arts and Recreational Tourism.
Mendocino as a region was foundational in cannabis cancer care. Today we assist and consult for farms and families outside of California who are seeing full reversals of many cancers. Some of the most inspiring are the ones that Mr Lawrence is referring too. All under the watchful eye of a Harvard trained doctor and monthly scans by prominant hospitals specializing in childhood cancer. Our healing community was devastated by our counties efforts to stifle cannabis. We constantly asked for a non profit medical model and were shot down. Did Mendocino County officials and residence think they are above cancer? I get calls from patients all the time and I cannot offer them actionable alternatives. Just for clarity it is taking 2 years to get a child to full remission on a brain cancer that chemo and radiation were no match for. It takes one lb of flower per year to make the concentrate for the child. We do not need huge farms to save people. We do not have to change the look of the region. Who am I to judge, I guess Mendocino County is sitting flush with money to cover health care costs of its employees and retirees. What is cheaper a lb of cannabis or a brain surgery, 40 chemo treatments and radiation. Along with a huge building filled with payed professionals?
Then there’s those of us that smoke pot like cigarettes. Just as bad. But I get what youre saying. Ag is ag.
Are you saying weed (or some sort of extract from it) cures cancer? This has never been shown to be the case, it’s a myth. It can help people cope with it, but it doesn’t cure anything. Maybe the reason you’re struggling to get the county to support is because it’s a psuedoscience.
Medicine for some folks…Poison for many others who cannot handle its potency and habitually abuse it.
And just plain old dope for the masses.
No, you missed it, it’s not touted as a curre, but as a palliative to ease pain and suffering.
Oh, I see the guy is actually claiming it eliminated cancers. Very dubious claim.
Try reading before criticizing:
this is from the American Cancer Society:
Does cannabis treat or cure cancer?
No, cannabis does not treat or cure cancer. Studies have not shown cannabis can stop or slow the growth of cancer cells. Experts at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) have developed a guideline for cancer doctors (oncologists) who treat adults with cancer. The guideline states that cannabis should not be used as a treatment for cancer unless it’s being studied in a clinical trial.
What symptoms and side effects can cannabis treat?
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other experts have looked at the benefits and harms of cannabis and continue to study them. The FDA lists the following accepted medical uses of cannabis for problems that are commonly reported by people with cancer.
Pain
Nausea and vomiting
Anorexia (loss of appetite)
Stress and anxiety
Sleep problems
The strongest benefits have been shown when cannabis is used to help relieve pain, nausea and vomiting, and loss of appetite.
Cannabis products come in many different forms and can be made from different varieties of cannabis plants, with differing levels of THC and CBD. It’s important to talk to you cancer care team about which options are best for the symptoms and side effects you have. Keep in mind that there are many other kinds of medicines and therapies that can help manage these effects as well.
What utter bs, who is this doctor? Give us a citation to authorities.
Mendocino county is determined to hold onto their cultivation tax model. No other industry in mendocino county is taxed the same way. It is destroying the cannabis industry.
They collected money when people signed up for the permit program but did not process the applications for years. When they finally processed the applications they pretended like they were in the hole from processing the applications. They might have been in the hole for that fiscal year but they already collected the money to process theses applications, It was just in a previous fiscal year.
This model continues to move forward with false claims about how much the program costs, they hold onto the tax structure as a way to float the financial cost of the program. It is their inability to run the program in a efficient manner is the reason it costs so much. Their current budget right now lists the program only being solvent from grant and tax money this is false information.
Those ‘average prices’ are full of SoCal’s indoor and greenhouse licenses, not Mendo-prices, which are closer to $200-$400 wholesale for outdoor. That seems like a lot, doesn’t it, but not so much when you can only grow a quarter acre of crop and every flower has to be hand-trimmed to perfection to get more than that $200. People could earn more on their land growing barley. They keep growing cannabis because they love it and it helps people, even if it doesn’t fill the farmers pocketbook.
Don’t forget the banks who want $500/month to hold a business bank account. How much does a regular business pay to have a bank account? My business pays nothing. Yours?
Every single part of the process requires obscene amounts of money. Everyone from state to county to banks, agencies and retailers has their fingers in the pie, while the farmer is left with a licked-out pie plate.
Same people who pushed for the complete and total destruction of the timber industry via over regulation and taxation. Now they are facing many of the environmental regs that they created and are upset over them?
not the same people at all. Most growers were like 10 years old when that happened
[…] some of which has resulted in market saturation due to open licensing, thriving illegal markets and overbearing regulation on licensing — cannabis’ need for strong financial talent continues to grow in order to manage the multiple […]
[…] some of which has resulted in market saturation due to open licensing, thriving illegal markets and overbearing regulation on licensing — cannabis’ need for strong financial talent continues to grow in order to manage the multiple […]